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May 19, 2010
The German photographer Christopher Thomas, who graduated from the Bavarian State School for Photography in Munich, evokes and treads in the footsteps of Eugene Atget with his black and white images of his native Munich and then New York.
Christopher Thomas, Gerner Brucke Schlosskanal, from Münchner Elegien
Thomas, who is a well known commercial photographer, picks up on the traditions of 19th century photography. He came an artist in the art institution with his Munich Elegies series done between 1995 and 2001. These images of Munich made between 5 + six in the morning refer back to the 19th: no cars, no people, classicist architecture, virgin landscapes, a derelict public pool, a thermal power station in the fog.
The same approach was adopted for the New York series--an absence that is the result of shooting in the early morning hours:
Christopher Thomas, Colgate Clock, from America Sleeps, circa 2009, Archival pigment print on Arches paper
He used a custom-made large-format Linhof field camera and Polaroid film to make the nearly 80 images that appear in the book. Many of the images were shot in the predawn hours, with few people milling about and with landmarks looking strangely unfamiliar.
Christopher Thomas, The Corner Deli, 2008, from America Sleeps, Archival pigment print on Arches paper
This is a New York devoid of people with empty streets and its parks bridges and waterways silent; a New York that often refers back to pre-modern Europe.
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